28 The Vortex of the Rose

Hilma af Klint’s development as a painter paralleled her development as a medium. She joined the Theosophical Society around the same time she started art school and soon after, Hilma, along with four other women — Anna Cassel, Cornelia Cederberg, Sigrid Hedman, and Mathilde Nilsson began meeting every Friday

“The Five” or “de Fem” as they called themselves, met each week to study esoteric texts and communicate with the spirits of high masters — those whom today we’d call Ascended Masters. Part of their studies involved practicing mediumship in the form of automatic writing and automatic painting.

Esoteric iconography — such as the chalice, the tree of life, the spiral and crucifix — are recurring symbols in sketches channeled by Hilma and other members of The Five.

The spirit guiding my channeled paintings was Hilma, so perhaps it is not entirely surprising that roses began showing up in my paintings as well.

In alchemy, a rose is represents “the mystic center of a person, his or her heart of hearts — one’s true nature” (www.azothalchemy.org)

The name of this painting, The Vortex of the Rose, just came to me.

When I looked up the meaning of vortex, I understood why: a whirling or circular motion or sometimes a fluid, that, like a whirlpool or hurricane has a vacuum in the center that draws everything towards it.

I didn’t  plan to paint a rose or a vortex and yet there both were. 

 I often feel that perhaps I am making all of this up, but the painting tells me otherwise: 

I started to believe that none of this was accidental.